UP will co-operate with Centre to clean Ganga: Akhilesh Yadav

NEW DELHI: The Uttar Pradesh Government will extend "whatever" co-operation the Centre will require in cleaning river Ganga, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said here today.

Akhilesh made the statement in view of Centre's plan to begin surface cleaning of the revered river's mainstream by next year - likely from January.

"Let them start the work, we will co-operate with them. I am not aware (off hand) the funds the Centre has released to us for the work yet, but we will extend whatever co-operation they require. Rather, we already have been co-operating over the same," he told PTI on the sidelines of 'Agenda Aaj Tak' conference here.

Uttar Pradesh is one of the five states from where river Ganga passes through. The other states are Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

The Central Government intends to begin cleaning the river with entry-level activities divided in four parts.

The activities include surface cleaning of the river's mainstream by removing solid waste.

Three other activities comprise construction/repairing of ghats along the river stretch, construction/repairing crematoria and recycling sewage water flowing into the river from over 3,000 villages on the banks of the river.